This invention relates to the need for increased conspicuity in moving vehicles in order to reduce the likelihood of accidents.
A significant percentage of traffic accidents is caused by the driver failing to see the other vehicle. This is particularly true in situations where a vehicle must be detected using peripheral as opposed to central vision, for example, when a driver's attention is directed away from the roadway directly ahead of his vehicle. There is good reason to believe that late detection on the part of the driver is a major factor in these collisions.
One way to reduce the likelihood of late detection is to increase vehicle conspicuity. To this end, daytime running lights have been introduced, as have white strobe lights on school buses. Motorcycles, particularly vulnerable due to their small size, are mandated to use their headlight at all times in order to increase their conspicuity. To further increase motorcycle conspicuity, a federal regulation (49 CFR 571.108-S7.9.4) allows motorcycles to use a modulated headlight, in which the intensity of the headlight fluctuates between maximum intensity and 17% of this value 4 to 5 times per second.
Studies have shown that a rapid flickering lamp captures the attention more than does a steadily burning lamp. It is also the case that human sensitivity to flicker increases as the lamp is viewed on the peripheral of the retina rather than on the fovea (center of the eye). The modulation rate of the present invention is chosen to exploit this difference in persistence rate, such that the lamp appears to flicker, and so is more conspicuous, when viewed off axis from the center of the eye, yet appears to be steady-burning when viewed straight on.
Improvements in the intensity, cost and power consumption of light emitting diodes and gas discharge lamps have made it feasible to use these devices on vehicles. Unlike incandescent bulbs, these new type of lamps have very rapid ON-OFF times. This rapid intensity control capability lends them well to their use as a high-conspicuity, rapidly modulated conspicuity lamp for vehicular use.
Other inventions exist that perform the function of increasing conspicuity but in a different way than the present invention. These include:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,151 issued to Tatsuo Hasegawa on Sep. 19, 1972;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,639 issued to Herbert Thrower on Jan. 5, 1982;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,218 issued to Daniel S. Woods on Sep. 6, 1994;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,010 issued to Theodore E. Cohn on Mar. 12, 1996;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,779 issued to Leon L. Friday on Jan. 5, 1999;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,744,361 issued to Harold Maddox on Jun. 1, 2004;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,603 issued to Sergiy Komarynsky on Jan. 4, 2005;
Although the devices and apparatus of the prior art deserve undeniable merits, it is believed that these prior inventions do not operate in the same manner or with the same design as the present invention.